Fodor's may use your email address to send you relevant information on site updates, account changes, and offers. For more information about your privacy and protection, please review our full Privacy Policy.

Hokkaido Sights

Sapporo Beer Garden and Museum (Sapporo Biru-en to Hakubutsukan)

Fodor's Review

Quaint brick buildings adjacent to a giant shopping mall make up the public face of Sapporo's most famous export. Here you'll find a small museum with signage mostly in Japanese that reveals the development of bottle and label designs and depicts decades of cheesecake shots from advertising posters. Pick up an English-language guide at the counter for explanations of all of the different things on display in the museum. For ¥200, you can taste any of the brews: Black Label is most popular, but the Classic and Kaitoku are only available in Hokkaido. Taste all three for ¥500. Also available are tea and soft drinks for ¥100.

In the evening the cavernous Sapporo Biergarten is filled with serious drinkers tackling the tabe-nomi-hodai (all-you-can-eat-and-drink) feast of lamb barbecue and beer (about ¥4,000 per person). The catch: You have to finish within 100 minutes. To get here, take a 15-minute Sapporo Walk circular bus from the train station. It's a ¥1,000 taxi ride.